


Now All I See Is You

by northofthehouse



Series: Just Sweet Universe [4]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Dessert & Sweets, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Romance, bubble tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23258467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northofthehouse/pseuds/northofthehouse
Summary: Minseok inserts himself into the small group of regulars and Sehun can see things getting a whole lot worse before anything gets better.(But don't worry; we're all happy stories in the end.)
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Lu Han/Oh Sehun
Series: Just Sweet Universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672336
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Red Bean Milk Tea w/Grass Pudding

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted on AFF. (Possibly) Also a repeat post to AO3 from my previously orphaned account (I don't remember what I posted and what I didn't). Not plagiary!

If anyone asked, Oh Sehun would say that _Just Sweet_ was lucky to have its new employees because Suho was nice and Jongdae was, well, he was funny at least.

He would _not_ say that since Suho was actually allergic to tapioca and Jongdae's attention span lasted probably less than three seconds, that _Just Sweet_ might have been better off without its two new additions to the employee team. (Truthfully, Suho's allergy didn't really affect Sehun one way or the other, but when Jongin—who didn't even work there—had wondered if it was bad enough that even touching the bubbles made Suho sick, Sehun had to question why on earth Kris thought it was a good idea to hire the guy. Kyungsoo thought that it was because Suho was kind of cute, in his own, straight-laced, naive kind of way, and if Jongin hadn't been a little afraid of his new boyfriend, he probably would have hit Kyungsoo for that offhandedly complimentary comment.)

Jongdae, in particular, had become the bane of Sehun's existence since he'd started because Sehun had enough to worry about while sharing a shift with Tao. He didn't need the added burden of someone on shift who didn't know how to make red bean milk tea with grass pudding simply because Jongdae hadn't been listening when Sehun first explained it to him.

"He's driving me crazy," Sehun complained to an amused Luhan when he ended up making the red bean drink and bringing it over to his boyfriend himself. "It is only a great fear of Yifan that keeps me from strangling him."

Luhan's expression turned dark. "Don't talk about that traitor in front of me," he grumbled, clearly still angry that it had been about a week since the incident but Tao was still sad since Yifan hadn't fixed things yet. As soon as he made his feelings known about that, however, Luhan's happy smile returned with a vengeance and he grinned at his boyfriend before reaching up to pat Sehun's hair patronizingly. "Aww, Sehunnie, you weren't the best new employee either, you know. Besides, you said you wanted to be with me

forever. If you murder our new hire then you'll go to jail and I'm not about to waste the rest of my life waiting for you to get out on good behavior."

Sehun resisted rolling his eyes because he knew that would only set Luhan off even more, so he just pecked his boyfriend's cheek and went back to work, slightly nervous that Jongdae had managed to break something in the five minutes that Sehun had been gone. Fortunately, though, all of _Just Sweet_ 's tea and coffe-making equipment was intact when Sehun returned; unfortunately, it didn't stay that way for long.

Sehun's shift passed slowly and was pretty uneventful aside from Jongdae's continued mini-mishaps. He waved goodbye when Luhan had to leave halfway through, waved hello when Baekhyun and Chanyeol showed up not long after, and repeated the customary greeting of "Welcome to _Just Sweet!_ " over and over and over again. Unlike his past customers, though, the one Sehun was currently serving had actually returned his fake smile with a real one of his own and had replied cheerfully, "Omo! You're so nice! Thanks!"

(At least, Sehun had _thought_ the other guy's smile was genuine; or he _did_ , until Jongdae emerged from the back and Sehun's customer's grin literally turned radiant. Clearly, the guy standing on the other side of the counter was a fan.)

"Omo," the customer repeated as his eyes followed Jongdae's movements shamelessly. He leaned forward so he could whisper to Sehun across the counter. "Kim Jongdae is so beautiful."

Sehun wrinkled his nose, kind of grossed out and disturbed by the idea that anyone could look at Kim Jongdae and think _attractive_ instead of _currently incompetent_. "I mean," he conceded slowly because the guy across from him was still a customer, after all, "I guess he could be. If you like that kind of stuff."

The other guy's eyes crinkled and his cheeks puffed cutely as he smiled again. "I do."

Sehun coughed awkwardly and glanced behind the current customer to see that their conversation was actually holding up the line. "Anyway, sir, would you like to order something, or—?" (Sehun left it opened ended like that because if the guy liked Kim Jongdae then there was no telling what his answer would be.)

"Omo!" The guy said for the _third_ time. "I'm so sorry! Um, I think I want a red bean milk tea. And can you put grass pudding in that?"

Sehun nodded and tried to keep a straight face even though the irony of the whole situation was actually really hilarious. (He'd have to tell Luhan and Jongin about it later. Probably Kyungsoo too because Sehun's glaring coworker and Sehun's best friend were now a package deal—bleh.)

"Oh! And," the guy leaned close again as he looked at Sehun hopefully, "can you throw in Jongdae's number for no extra charge?"

"That depends." Sehun pretended to deliberate for a moment just because it was fun to watch the other guy sweat. "We don't usually do this at _Just Sweet_ , but can I get a name for your order? Cause I don't have my coworker's number, but I know someone who does."

"It's Minseok!" The guys reaction was almost a squeak and Sehun winced at the sound as he heard Chanyeol and Baekhyun's cackled in the background. "Sorry," the guy apologized. "But, um, yeah. Minseok."

A few minutes later, after Sehun had left and oblivious Jongdae at the register while Sehun prepared Minseok's drink, Sehun placed the finished order on the bar and yelled out, "Red bean for Minseok."

At the sound of his name, Minseok leapt up from his seat and hurried over, just as Jongdae's head whirled in Sehun's direction, face filled with shock.

"Kim Minseok?" He tried to whisper to Sehun while giving a customer change and searching around the bubble tea shop for the owner of that name.

Sehun shrugged—how was he supposed to know Minseok's last name? Jongdae, though, just looked horrified as his eyes located their target and it was indeed the Kim Minseok he'd assumed. "Oh _god_ ," Jongdae groaned under his breath as he beckoned the next customer forward and Sehun just felt confused.

"Is that bad?" He asked his pale coworker, once Minseok had grabbed his drink, waved goodbye to his new friend, and promised to come back again tomorrow.

"Not bad, necessarily," Jongdae hedged. "It's just that he confessed to me a while ago and I haven't given him an answer yet. So now he always shows up in the most random places of my life and I don't know what to do."

"Give him an answer," Sehun declared, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. (He conveniently forgot for a moment how hard it had been for him when it came to liking Luhan, and even how difficult it currently was for Tao and Yifan to be anywhere in the same room together. Jongin liked to say that his best friend's memory selection was going to get him in trouble one day, but it hadn't yet, so Sehun just ignored Jongin—like he always did—and went on with his temporarily forgetful ways.) "And how long is "a while ago" anyway?" Sehun wanted to know because Jongdae was starting to look really guilty all of a sudden and Sehun took that as a bad sign.

Suddenly, though Tao appeared from where he'd been sulkily washing down and clearing tables for the last half hour, and answered the question instead. "Jongdae and Minseok were _sunbaes_ at my high school, Sehunnie- _hyung_. And while I was there, I heard a rumor that Minseok- _sunbae_ has liked Jongdae- _sunbae_ since they were 10 or something but Jongdae- _sunbae_ has never clarified his feelings one way or another."

Tao finished with a disapprovingly raised eyebrow in Jongdae's direction, but Sehun took the willingness to discuss another's love life as a good sign of Tao's progress and clapped Luhan's cousin on the back enthusiastically. (Well, it was enthusiastic for _Sehun_ , but if anyone asked, Tao would probably say it felt more like a gnat landing on his shoulder than a strong hand hitting his back.)

"This is good," Sehun nearly crowed in excitement about the happy news he'd be able to deliver to his boyfriend's waiting ears. "You're coming back to us, Taozi!"

At the reminder that he was supposed to be mad at Yifan, Tao actually got angry once more, so he left in a sudden huff that made Sehun regret saying anything in the first place. Jongdae just rolled his eyes at the other two's interaction and left to go back to his position at the register.

As Sehun watched both of his coworkers walk away, a horrible thought occurred to him and he felt right then like he almost wanted to cry. If he'd thought a distracted Jongdae was a lot to deal with on top of a wallowing Tao, now that Minseok had inserted himself into the small group of regulars—employees and customers—at _Just Sweet_ , Sehun could see things getting a whole lot worse before anything got better.


	2. Honeydew Milk Tea w/Rainbow Pudding

If anyone asked, Oh Sehun would say that he wasn't exactly sure when _Just Sweet_ changed from a bubble tea shop into the setting for a day drama, but he was tired of it.

He would _not_ say that he secretly found Minseok's obsession with Jongdae kind of adorable or that he was at _all_ invested in getting the unlikely couple together someday soon. (Because he _didn't_ and he _wasn't._ For one thing, adorable was an adjective Sehun reserved solely for his BTG. For another, he was not cut out to be a matchmaker—not in this life or any other—and the fate of other peoples' romantic happiness had nothing to do with him. Nothing at all.)

Still, with Suho's understandable resignation following his unfortunate allergy incident a few days earlier, Sehun found himself more involved in Minseok and Jongdae's situation than he'd ever expected—or honestly wanted—to be.

"It's like they think I'm a freaking relationship counselor or something!" Sehun complained to his boyfriend as Luhan did school work and the younger boy, who was technically on shift, pretended to wipe down the table.

"Aren't you?" Luhan teased sweetly, pecking a quick kiss of insincere apology to his boyfriend's cheek after Sehun squawked in annoyance.

"Bully," Sehun whined, aegyo accidental but effective nonetheless. He caught Luhan's gaze as it shifted over his shoulder and into a glare, and Sehun turned around to find Yifan hovering awkwardly a few meters away. The student manager coughed like he was hinting at something and though Sehun knew Luhan would probably have just ignored Yifan, Sehun didn't really have the energy. (He got that from Jongin, probably. Or maybe it was the other way around? Either way, Kyungsoo was always complaining about his boyfriend's lazy tendencies, but Sehun and his best friend had been that way since childhood. No amount of pestering from Mama Do was going to change that.)

With a sigh and a lingering brush of his palm across Luhan's smaller shoulders, Sehun picked up his rag and returned forlornly to his spot behind the counter. His arrival relieved Jongdae of the cashier position, and just in time too because not a minute passed after Jongdae disappeared into the back for his break before Minseok was barreling through _Just Sweet_ 's doors with two surprising companions in tow.

"Suho hyung! And Lay-ssi!" Sehun greeted after exchanging silent "Hello" with a sad-looking Minseok. Truthfully Sehun was a little surprised to see the three together.

"We're flatmates, actually. Me and Lay," Minseok shared in response to Sehun's unspoken curiosity.

"I was here to meet Min for a quick study break when Junnie nearly died," Lay added while Sehun nodded in understanding and Suho blushed when Lay smiled winningly at him. (Sehun didn't know who this Junnie was, but the only near-death experience in _Just Sweet_ 's recent history was Suho's, so Sehun had no problem making an educated guess. That and Lay's dimples were pretty difficult to argue with, even for someone as admittedly sullen as Sehun.)

"And now we're here for some bubble tea!" Suho concluded, though he rapidly amended his statement to "Milk tea! No tapioca involved!" when Sehun shot him a look. Jongdae chose that moment to emerge from the back room with his apron sloppily tied around his waist and his name tag pinned shamelessly askew.

Sehun's coworker grumbled incoherently when he recognized the customers standing before the register, and he rubbed at his eyes with a frown, clearly exhausted and possibly still waking up from a stolen nap. "Oh," he said, voice level and deceptively disinterested. "It's you."

It should have been strange for Sehun to see the normally mischievous and playful Jongdae acting so cold, but sadly such behavior had recently become pretty standard for the other boy.

(Sehun had it on good authority—and by that he meant Jongin, who'd heard the story from Kyungsoo, obviously—that Jongdae and Minseok had had some sort of a fight. Apparently Jongdae had _finally_ given an answer to Minseok's confession—and a positive one, too—but then he'd asked Minseok to wait until Jongdae felt ready for a relationship. Minseok had been understandably livid, had yelled something along the lines of "I've been waiting for you for _years_ , you selfish bastard!", and had stormed out of the shop in a huff.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun backed up the story when Sehun grilled them about the details over his next shift, and Sehun found himself sad that he had missed it.)

Ignoring Jongdae's presence completely, Minseok finally placed his order of a plain milk tea with bubbles, while Suho got a honeydew milk tea with rainbow pudding—"Like your boyfriend's rainbow hair!" he told Sehun with an excited smile. Lay ordered nothing at all but still insisted on paying, and Sehun processed the payment while Jongdae moped behind him. Jongdae stood with back turned away from Minseok and the others even though both _Just Sweet_ employees, and possibly even Suho, knew that Jongdae couldn't have made the ordered drinks if his life depended on it. (He really was that hopeless and it really did drive Sehun insane.)

The three customers went to find themselves a table, and Minseok waved over at Baekhyun and Chanyeol where the couple was hunched together and whispering suspiciously. Both boys took a moment to wave back before returning to their deeply important conversation, and Sehun shot Luhan a desperate look accompanied by a long suffering sigh. The BTG just laughed and blew his boyfriend a kiss before returning his attention to his textbooks.

And Jongdae was indeed useless as Sehun moved around the working space to make the drinks. He was even worse today, though, because in the time it had taken Minseok and the other two to order, Yifan's pretty girlfriend had arrived and now Minseok was openly flirting with the girl right in front of Jongdae's face.

"The nerve," Sehun thought he heard Jongdae complain under his breath. (And was that a clenched fist Sehun saw barely hidden beneath the skirt of Jongdae's uniform apron?)

Honestly, part of Sehun wanted to agree with Jongdae because, really, what kind of guy gets a return confession from his lifetime crush and then turns around to flirt with someone else? A different part of Sehun—the part that had to clean up all of Jongdae's messes and secretly relished the jealous anguish Yifan would likely feel when he emerged from his office to find his girlfriend flirting with another guy—completely disagreed: if Minseok wanted to flirt with someone in an _obvious_ ploy to make Jongdae jealous, Sehun certainly wasn't going to get involved. And so he didn't, but Luhan _did_.

"I can't _believe_ you!" Luhan hissed, stomping toward Minseok and Yifan's girlfriend with short, angry steps that got him across the shop floor much faster than expected for someone with legs so little. (Sehun knew from experience that Luhan's legs could be pretty long when necessary—like when they were kissing against the closed door of Luhan's dorm and the BTG had the urge to wrap himself around Sehun's body for better balance and access—but it was still pretty impressive how speedy Luhan could charge when mad enough.) " _You_!" He turned first to Yifan's girlfriend, pointing an accusatory finger into her upper arm. "My poor baby cousin is helplessly into your boyfriend and I will _not_ have you emotionally damaging someone that my Taozi has feelings for. Yifan deserves whatever he gets in my opinion, but Tao doesn't deserve to have his heart broken by having the person he likes get his own heart broken. So stop it."

Yifan's girlfriend was left gaping at the small Chinese boy as Luhan turned all of his ire onto Minseok. Sehun's boyfriend apparently still had a lot of pent-up feelings and it was truly remarkable watching Luhan tear into Minseok.

"Jongdae said he likes you, you pabo! So what if he doesn't think he's ready for a relationship yet? Count your blessings! At least you don't have to wait in limbo anymore. Now you know for sure and you can win him over with your charms but trying to make him jealous is _not_ the right way to do it." Luhan deflated slowly as Minseok's pout deepened and Yifan's girlfriend continued to watch silently, clearly in shock.

With one last glare at both parties, Luhan commanded "Fix this," before flouncing to Sehun's side and burying his face into his boyfriend's shoulder with a pronounced sigh. Baekhyun and Chanyeol could be heard clapping loudly in the background, but Sehun ignored them to kiss the top of Luhan's head—he shouldn't find Luhan stunning when he was angry like that, but it was sort of hard for Sehun not to find _everything_ Luhan did absolutely beautiful—and brush a hand to pet at his boyfriend's hair in steady, soothing strokes.

"You have homework, love," he reminded his boyfriend gently. Luhan groaned into Sehun's collarbone and breathed deeply for a few seconds, but eventually he pulled away. With a quick kiss to Sehun's lips, Luhan returned to his table in silence and resumed studying like he hadn't just caused a hugely dramatic scene. (Sehun was positive Jongin would relish the gossip when he shared it later, and Sehun was actually sort of sad that his best friend hadn't caught Luhan's outburst for himself. For some reason it was kind of satisfying to Sehun that his boyfriend could be just as scary as Jongin's.)

After that, things pretty much returned to normal—or as normal as things in _Just Sweet_ ever seemed to be. Minseok sat hunched over his milk tea for a few minutes; he was sniffling suspiciously and it wasn't long before he fled the shop with his hands over his face and his drink forgotten. Jongdae shot Sehun a pleading look and, after a begrudging nod of permission from his harried coworker, quickly followed Minseok out the door.

"I hope they work it out," Sehun mumbled to himself as he cleared away Minseok's trash and washed the table as quickly as he could. Jongdae's sudden departure meant Sehun was the only regular employee on shift at the moment—Yifan, still holed up in his office and completely oblivious to everything that had just occurred in the shop he was _supposed_ to be managing, didn't count—and Sehun was loath to leave the register unattended for long. Still, by the time he'd finished tidying up around _Just Sweet_ , there was already a small line formed by customers waiting to order, and Sehun was surprised to see Yifan's girlfriend first in line.

"Sorry for the delay," he apologized stiffly, hating that his job required him to be polite even when he didn't think the particular customer deserved it. "What can I get you?"

The girl leaned forward, her expression puzzled, and asked "If I order something will you tell me why on earth everyone in this place seems to hate me?"

Sehun wasn't expecting that. "Um," he paused, unsure what to do, but then Yifan came out of his office and Sehun muttered "Sure, I guess. Give me a minute," before resuming his duties and looking appropriately busy.

"Where's Jongdae?" Yifan wanted to know, and Sehun had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he handed Yifan's girlfriend her change. (It seemed like every employee at _Just Sweet_ other than Sehun—and Luhan, of course—were completely imcompetent. Kyungsoo never came to work, Yifan never left his office, and Jongdae couldn't actually make any of the items on the drink menu. Sehun was honestly surprised that the bubble tea shop was even still open at the rate they were going.)

"Out," Sehun responded curtly while the customer after Yifan's girlfriend took his sweet time deciding what to order. (Seriously, though, why couldn't he have done that while waiting? Sehun hated his job.) "He had a minor emergency."

"Oh." The student manager didn't seem to know what to say to that, so he just nodded briefly, offered a tired smile to his girlfriend, and went back into hiding. Jongdae's sense of timing was apparently impeccable because he returned right after Yifan closed the door to his office behind him. Sehun's coworker was smiling broadly so Sehun assumed something good must have happened in the 15 or so minutes since Jongdae had abandoned him.

"I covered for you with Yifan," Sehun told Jongdae. "Now cover for me."

"But the orders?" Jongdae sounded surprised that someone younger than him had the nerve to boss him around, but even more evident was the instant panic in his voice when it occurred to him that he'd have to actually make the drinks that had been ordered while he was out making up with Minseok.

"You'll be fine," Sehun reassured the older boy, not really believing his words himself but the sight of Yifan's girlfriend waiting expectantly was starting to annoy him and Sehun wanted to deal with that situation as fast as he could, so he left Jongdae standing alone in the work space without a backward glance.

"He looks a little out of his league," the girl pointed out offhandedly as Sehun approached wearing an obvious frown. "And you look a little unhappy to see me," she added, attempting a joke to lighten the mood but not doing so very successfully.

"Your boyfriend didn't look all that happy to see you either," Sehun countered almost maliciously. (The drama was severely exhausting. Sehun wished for the easy days, back when it was just him pining over his BTG.)

To Sehun's surprise, the girl looked instantly annoyed. "Would you all stop saying that? Yifan is _not_ my boyfriend! God."

Huh. That was certainly not what Sehun had been expecting her to say, and if their sudden attention was anything to go by, Luhan, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol seemed just as shocked.

"He's not?" Tao questioned tentatively, his voice sounding hopeful. Sehun had no idea when Luhan's cousin had gotten to _Just Sweet_ , but a glance at his watch revealed that his shift really was almost over—thank _God!_ —and that Luhan and Tao's shared shift was set to start in less than ten minutes.

"Um, no?" The girl's answer came out like a question of it's own, and Sehun couldn't decide if that was because she was unsure or because she couldn't understand how anyone could possibly think she and Yifan were an item. "I have a girlfriend?" She offered, still questioning, though this time Sehun was sure it's because she was simply confused.

"You do?" Tao squeaked in surprise and Sehun rolled his eyes. Of course she did. Of course the drama that had been consuming all of _Just Sweet_ 's employees and half of its regular customers for over a month wasn't really drama at all. Of course Yifan was a hopeless idiot who'd been making Tao suffer for ages simply because he didn't know any better. _Of course_.

"I quit," Sehun declared loudly, tossing the rag in his hand onto the table. He wasn't sure anyone heard him except for Luhan, who snickered and winked again.

"Sure you do," the BTG mouthed at his boyfriend in amusement. "Sure."


End file.
